Ateljé Finne

5 years ago we had some 40 minutes to kill before the beginning of our wedding ceremony. So we decided to pop into Ateljé Finne for a glass of sparkling. The brunch time was already over, and there were still couple of hours until the dinner time, so in theory the restaurant was closed. But luckily there were the Madventures guys Riku and Tunna having a very long brunch with their friends, so we could also stay for a while. The sommelier asked "whose big day is it?". "Ours", we replied. "Then it's on the house", he said.

Yesterday, on our 5th anniversary, we decided to return. Well, we have been there with friends, together and separately, during these 5 years - but not just two of us.

It's probably partly nostalgia, but I like Finne a lot. The place is really a former studio of sculptor Gunnar Finne, and some of his pieces are still present at the restaurant. And the food... oh! I guess the food could be categorized as modern scandinavian. I'd say it's rustic fine-dining, made of really high quality seasonal ingredients. And if you you happen to be served by the sommelier, he'll introduce you the most beautiful wines that match perfectly with the dishes.

I had a steak tartare for starter. I've never eaten tartare before, but Finne is one of the only places I dare to have that. And it was delicious. Not yucky at all, but fresh, salty and sour at the same time. As the main course I had a fish cake made of lightly smoked fish, nettles and fresh peas - and it was fantastic. In places like Finne it's ok to have meat, you won't be disappointed - but the fish dishes are just so phenomenal, that shame on you if you miss the fish. The dessert I had is the classic of Finne: licorice créme brûlée. There are very few sweets I like, but this one was just perfect - maybe because it wasn't too sweet.

So if you want to have Finnish food and something better, try Ateljé Finne. And if you want to have same style of food but one more step towards rustic - go for the Finne's sister restaurant Kuurna.  

Mannerheim, the epic movie man

The past week Finns have been arguing what kind of movie adaption is ok when talking about C.G.E. Mannerheim, the marshal of Finland.

So who is this Mannerheim guy anyway? He was the leader of the Finnish army in the second world war. Tiny Finland fought against the great red army of Russia - technically Finland lost the war, but that's a minor detail, since Finland was able to maintain its formal independence, unlike Estonia, for example.

So Mannerheim is seen as a national hero in Finland. He has been voted as the greatest Finn of all times. If one could become a saint in Finland, he'd be the most sacred of them all. The following examples tell something about his position in our culture:

In the end of 1990's the construction site of Kiasma (the museum of contemporary art) took place right next to Mannerheim statue. The wall/fence of the construction site was pink - quite suitable for museum of contemporary art. But. The wall closest to Mannerheim statue had to be painted grey - since pink wasn't honorable enough for his statue.

Finnish movie director Renny Harlin (you may remember him directing Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger) and producer Markus Selin have been planning a massive movie production about Mannerheim. The planned movie has been showing off pre-marketing actions in a way that has never seen before in Finland. Too bad that the guys run out of money on the way, and the plans were first put on hold and eventually dumped. So no epic movie about Mannerheim, at least not from Harlin&Selin.

Couple of years back there was a puppet animation about Mannerheim, which of course caused a fuss. As a background, there are rumors about Mannerheim's sexual orientation, and in the animation there's an unconventional love scene. Which caused a storm in a tea kettle. And nobody didn't seem to notice that the animation itself was simply poor, it doesn't deserve even a half-a-star-rating.

And now, in 2012, there's been huge fuss about (yet another) Mannerheim movie: The Finnish broadcasting company has produced a short film about Mannerheim. The movie is made in Kenya and the role of Mannerheim is played by a Kenyan. And that's too much for most. Well, eventually it turned out that the film was a side product of a reality show, not a real movie. I wonder what kind of a fuss is on when the reality airs.

What next? There are still lots of genres left to be tried out...

     (C) Erik

What to do on weekend

Next weekend is filled with events - either very affordable events or totally free of charge. All of these have been advertised in English, so I'm quite confident that they work for non-Finnish-speaking too:

1. Restaurant day

On Sunday anyone can open a pop-up restaurant. The concept is expanding outside Finland too! Check out the restaurant closest to you on the map.


2. Helsinki Design Open

Image: Rauno Träskelin

Pop-up concept store / exhibition / café about Finnish design at Iron house, right opposite to Stockmann at city center. Open only until Saturday (9 AM to 2 PM). Quality pieces, beautiful architecture.


3. Robot workshop

Build your own robot at Kaapelitehdas. Instructions and material are on the house. Workshop is running on Sunday from 11 AM to 3 PM.

So many things to do, so little time...

Fiskars Ruukki

Today I visited the Fiskars Ruukki for the first time. It's one of the attractions that has been on my to-visit-list for long time, but finally I managed to take the time and get there. The trigger for visiting Fiskars this week was the flower exhibition that my sister participated. She had two pieces on the show, this one being themed in a futuristic way for the Paper House of Fiskars - she had made the frame for the flowers from 800 paper circles! Unfortunately my camera run out of battery, so I didn't get a picture from the other piece. But I'm a very proud big sister.


Detail of the flower setup made by my sister


River being calm

The story about flower exhibition actually explained already what Fiskars Ruukki is all about today: art and handicraft surrounded with beautiful nature. Many artists have residence in the village, and there are shops selling handicrafts. Unlike in many tourist attractions, the food in Fiskars is good too. We had a delicious lunch at Restaurant Kuparipaja (Copper workshop) by the river, and coffee at Petris Chocolate Room. Petris Chocolate Room is something I can warmly recommend: beautiful handmade pralines with perfect chocolate and smart flavor combinations. My absolute favorite was the black currant praline. Petris's artisan chocolate is available in Helsinki too, the shop at Museokatu 11, Töölö is open on weekdays, and they'll have a chocolate bar at Helsinki Design Open event in couple of weeks.


Petris Chocolate Room

Delicious pralines: black currant, lime-coconut and pistachio

Fiskars Ruukki used to be an iron mill, it was founded in the 17th century by the river. All kinds of iron tools were made there - so that's the home of the orange Fiskars scissors too. The beautiful old industrial buildings have been nicely renovated and many of them serve nowadays as shops or exhibition rooms. One of my favorite details in the industrial buildings were the dark bricks in some of the houses: they were made of the blast furnace slag - recycling the industrial waste of the mill. The wooden houses were built for the workers of the mill, and some of them are still in residential use.


Black bricks


Residential buildings


Another residence. The lady of the house at the door (too bad there are no other bees in the pic to give the scale)

Nice experience. I recommend visiting Fiskars for anyone who's staying in Finland for a bit longer, and for the locals as well.


The trees in Fiskars were amazing

The joy of dance

If you happen to spot the Wannabe Ballerinas somewhere in the Finnish summer, go and check them out. Wannabe Ballerinas are a ballet group of adults who are having ballet as a hobby. It's not professional, it's not flawless, but definitely joyful. I spotted them in Berlin, and went to see them. Maybe it's stupid to go and see a Finnish dance group abroad, but it was fun.

Kristina från Duvemåla

Yesterday I went to see musical called Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina from Duvemåla) in the recently renovated Swedish Theater.

The story is based on Swedish epic about immigrants who moved from Sweden to America in the late 19th century. The musical is written by the ABBA guys Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus - but the music was not exactly Waterloo or Dancing Queen type of songs. But I liked the it. However, it wasn't the compositions or the story that made the musical good; the key was the leading actress Maria Ylipää and her beautiful, beautiful voice. She didn't sound like a traditional "singing actress", and she wasn't "acting singer" either (although her role was mostly to sing, not to act), but her voice was simply clear, flawless and beautiful.

Unfortunately you can't use words "flawless" or "beautiful" to describe her wig. It was a clear wig, a clumsy one. She had to be transformed into a blond, as Swedes do, but the wig was horrible. Another negative side of the musical was the duration: it lasted for 4 hours. I know it's difficult to be compact, and therefore I respect it so highly - but I'm sure they could have squeezed it into 3 hours.

All in all, great music, smart stage design and jolly good actors. If you want to go and see a musical in Finland, I recommend you to take the Swedish option. Last year I went to see Les Miserables in Turku Swedish Theater, and that was excellent too - better than the Finnish version in the Helsinki City Theater some years ago.

Some advice if you go and check Kristina:

• The musical is sold out for many months on, but it's definitely worth asking for cancellation tickets if you're ready for short notice.
• If you're booking tickets right now and considering the balcony seats, book your seats on the left balcony. The actors are spending quite a lot of time at the right side of the stage, so you'll have better view on the left.
• Wear a light jacket. They have a weird, small, semi-unattended wardrobe, so you might want to take your jacket with you into hall.
• The break is 30 minutes, in case you want to optimize the toilet business. After 20 minutes of the break the queue in the ladies room was gone.

Iron Sky

I went to see Iron Sky, the new Finnish movie.



It was funny, I did laugh many times. It sure was visual. The jokes about USA and Germany were ruthless enough. But something was still missing. I'm not sure if I had expected even more humor or different kind of humor, or maybe the acting wasn't quite there...

Anyway, worth seeing, definitely!

Maiden of Finland

Geographically Finland reminds a bit of a woman. If you look at the map of Finland it reminds of a lady: you can see the head, arm, waist and dress. Maybe because of the shape of the country, "Maiden of Finland" has become the personification of Finland - a bit like Uncle Sam is the personification of United States.

Graphically Maiden of Finland has turned into young blond woman wearing Finnish folk costume. She has been popping up everywhere: in art, comedy, even on the label of oatmeal (image above). Couple of weeks ago the embassy of Finland in Tokyo announced an illustration contest about "updating Maiden of Finland". The result: 35 adorable manga figures!

I'm amazed by the outcome of the contest. Why? Because the illustrations are so cheerful! That kind of a playful approach didn't even come into my mind. If you'd give the very same updating task to a Finnish artist, the end result would be either a melancholic adaptation or a clear statement. Joyful adaptation is just not part of our "artistic database". I'm refreshed in a positive way.

Wee? Gee!

Despite the nasty connotation WeeGee is the best museum center in Helsinki region. It really is. Forgive them, they probably didn't think about the name in English context. Despite the funny name and messy website, WeeGee is without a doubt the only museum in Helsinki region which is worth purchasing an annual ticket (40 euros for unlimited access for a year).

There are five museums in WeeGee: Espoo museum of modern art (EMMA), Espoo city museum, Helinä Rautavaara museum (presenting different cultures), toy museum and watch museum. Each of the museums hosts on average couple of exhibitions per year, and EMMA has great art collection even without the themed seasonal exhibitions. And on Wednesday evenings 6 PM to 8 PM they have free entrance.

WeeGee also serves something for the hippies - a nice brunch on weekends: bread, lettuce, cheese, turkey, eggs, omelet, sausages, pesto, hummus, juices, smoothie, porridge, brownies, pancakes, yoghurt with all kinds of müsli and seeds, fruits, coffee, tea and sparkling wine. The brunch doesn't seem so special if you just look at the titles of the dishes, but the dishes are made of quality ingredients. I liked especially the oat porridge which had a hint of coconut and banana in it. The restaurant is quite spacious, so also larger groups and families with kids and trolleys are able to fit in.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

This is an opportunity served on a silver plate: Art exhibition by Akseli Gallen-Kallela is open until January 15th at the second floor of Tennispalatsi, right next to Kamppi bus station. They have free entrance from Dec 27th to 31st - so this is your chance to get to know the Finnish artist. The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday at 11 AM - 7 PM, but e.g. on New Year's Eve they close at 3 PM.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela was the hottest artist in Finland in the late 19th - early 20th century, and he had a significant role in building the Finnish cultural identity. His most famous pieces are large oil paintings, but he also made frescos, posters and more symbolic experiments.

Then a sightseeing tip for the spring: Gallen-Kallela's studio is located in Espoo, right next to Leppävaara. The house is amazing, there's a café on the yard and the view is beautiful. It's really worth visiting (at least the garden, if you don't care for the paintings that much) for example on May, when the nature around the place starts to bloom.


Näytä Gallen-Kallela studio suuremmalla kartalla